Reclaiming your power
By Cynthia Vespia Domestic abuse runs rampant in today’s society. The statistics are staggering, and those are just the reported cases. I’ve not been a victim of physical abuse, but I grew up with it around me. As a child I didn’t know what to do about it. As a strong woman, I fight. There are many tactics of abuse that are just as horrible, if not worse, than the physical. A lot of emotional scars are left behind by abusive relationships. I knew someone who was so beaten down by their spouse that over the years it had become something of a “Stockholm Syndrome” scenario, where the victim is under so much strain that befriending or loving the captor becomes the only way to cope with the situation. This is something I touched on in my suspense novel Sins and Virtues . My female lead, Sam Mitchell, has been through years of abuse at the hands of her husband, so much so that it has changed her as a person. I paint her with a brush of a woman trying to piece ba